Cal Fire-Butte County firefighters practice with hoses along a stimulated fire line Wednesday at Table Mountain Ranch in Oroville. Crews worked on skills such as laying hoses, using fire tools and deploying shelters.
(Barbara Arrigoni/Staff Photo)

OROVILLE — The sight of a dozen firefighters in full gear dousing a dry, grassy hillside Wednesday morning looked a little incongruous, but according to Cal Fire-Butte County officials, it was necessary.

Captains, engineers and firefighters from three companies traversed a hill at Table Mountain Ranch, training for situations they could encounter during real fires.

It was the second of two days worth of training, preparing for the fire season.

The work Wednesday began shortly after 9 a.m.

A scenario had already been planned for the day's exercises involving laying hose, using hand tools and deploying fire shelters. It also encompassed training on communications and the universal wildland-urban interface drills.

"We'll be laying hose on an imaginary fire line," said Battalion Chief Mike Shorrock before Capt. Cal Waters made a call over the radio to begin.

"It's good, basic training," Shorrock said. "We take notes, and at the end of the day we have lunch and go over our notes, talking about the strengths and challenges."

A short time later, engines and personnel arrived at a staging area from Gridley, Paradise and Robinson's Mill.

More crews were supposed to train but had canceled due to fighting a real vegetation fire early Wednesday morning.

The firefighters' first training task was to lay out hose where the simulated fire was.

It was too windy to train with real fire.

As the imaginary fire began to spread, the firefighters proceeded uphill. Carrying hoses with 150 pounds of water pressure, they stopped frequently to check tools, increase water pressure and add more hose.

Around 20 minutes later, the crew arrived at a flat area near the top of the hill, under a stand of oak trees, far from the base. By then, the water pressure had been increased to 200 pounds.

During the climb, the hose dropped. Another time, the hose broke, but Cal Fire spokeswoman Mary Ann Aldrich said that was good.

"This is good training, because every now and then, it happens," she said. "They get a broken hose and they change it out quickly."

Soon one of the commanding firefighters yelled, "We're out of water!"

That was a cue for another scenario. Shorrock had said earlier that when firefighters run out of water at fires, that's when they use hand tools to build a fire line.

"We want to have them react to the transition to using hand tools," he said.

"This ground is awful to build hand lines on," Aldrich said. "It's very hard work, especially when you realize these guys are out at a fire for 24 hours at a time."

As the firefighters toiled on the handline, a captain called out the imaginary fire was spreading and shouted, "It's getting hot! Get your shelters on."

In reality, firefighters have around 30 seconds to get into shelters and down on the ground.

As the crew lay in green and orange practice shelters, the captain took roll call and advised the men to stay in their shelters and keep their radios on.

Aldrich and Shorrock said the shelter exercise is training for a "last resort" situation.

"The scariest thing to do is deploy shelters," Aldrich said. "It signals there's an issue. It happens, but not very often."

While inside the shelters, the men communicated by radio, which would help other crews to pinpoint their location in the event of a real fire.

The training also gave command personnel practice on commanding and controlling a fire incident.

Reach Barbara Arrigoni at 533-3136, barrigoni@orovillemr.com, or on Twitter @OMRBarbara.